Reciprocating floor conveyors are a relatively recent development. Basically, they comprise at least one group of at least three elongated floor members and a hydraulic drive system which operates to drive at least a majority of the floor members in unison in the desired conveying direction, and to retract them individually. Systems are in use in which all of the floor members are driven in unison, in the desired conveying direction, and are then individually retracted sequentially. It has also been proposed to drive a majority of the floor slat members in the desired conveying direction while at the same time retracting the remaining floor slat members. The present invention has application with both types of systems.
For background purposes, reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 4,143,760, granted Mar. 13, 1979, to U.S. Pat. No. 4,144,963, granted Mar. 20, 1979, and to U.S. Pat. No. 4,184,587, granted Jan. 22, 1980, all to Olaf A. Hallstrom. Reference is also made to my copending application Ser. No. 346,863, filed Feb. 8, 1982, entitled Drive Unit Mount for a Reciprocating Floor Conveyor, and now U.S. Pat. No. 4,474,285, granted Oct. 2, 1984, and to my copending application Ser. No. 346,865, filed Feb. 8, 1982, and entitled Drive/Guide System for a Reciprocating Floor Conveyor, and now U.S. Pat. No. 4,492,303, granted Jan. 8, 1985.
Earlier forms of reciprocating floor conveyors are disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 2,629,504, granted in February of 1953 to Peterson; by U.S. Pat. No. 2,973,856, granted in March of 1961 to Brooks; by U.S. Pat. No. 3,534,875, granted in October of 1970 to Hallstrom; and by West German Patent Publication 1,296,087, published in May of 1969. These patents are not particularly pertinent to the subject invention and require no further comment.